Origin

The Greek physician Galen, who lived between 129 and 99 bc, used dosis, the Greek word for ‘a gift’, for ‘a portion of medicine’. In like a dose of salts, ‘very quickly and efficiently’, the salts referred to are Epsom salts or magnesium sulphate. They have had a variety of medicinal uses since the 18th century, most notably as a very effective and fast-acting laxative. The name Epsom salts comes from the town of Epsom in Surrey, where the crystals were first found.